


Trial and Rebirth

by Fritillary



Category: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo | Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Isolation, Madness, Revenge, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 16:48:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18695455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fritillary/pseuds/Fritillary
Summary: Within the walls of the Chateau D'if, he is only prisoner number 34





	Trial and Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> Although written after marathoning the anime, this could fit the book too, if you just assume Edmund's isolation in the Chateau has just made him go a little bit crazy and its all in his head. Then again, maybe the anime's strangeness is all in his head too...  
> Prompt: 267 - Test (writers_choice ) Spoilers for both the book and the anime, and for the count's real name & past.

When first imprisoned, he had hope, dreams, and, above all, the belief that Mercedes, beloved Mercedes, would rescue him. His head, down in the darkness, was filled with visions of the most beautiful woman in the Catalans weeping at the gates of his prison, and the jailers, the wise, kind, and considerate Villefort, the prosecutor, would stand with her and plead his innocence. Though his eyes saw only the pitch-black of his tiny cell, bound as he was, in his mind he was free, stepping out into the sunlight once again, Mercedes clasped in his arms. But the days passed, the weeks; the years slipped away, and still the young sailor remained trapped. The visions, once so clear in his mind, became faded and distant, as if seen through smoked glass or rippling waves. All that was once bright has darkened to match the endless shadows upon his cell walls.

Years later, deep in the Chateau D'if, suspended among the chains, a man hangs helpless in his torment. A whisper comes to him in the darkness, preying upon the shadows that have crept from the walls and into his soul. _This is your test._ At first he tried not to hear, afraid of these voices after silence for so long, but they come again and again. _Your test... your test..._

He cannot shut them out and they come closer and speak more softly, gentle caressing words in his ear and in his mind. _You must be free; young and powerful, as you were destined to be, not chained with neither rhyme nor reason._ The voices, he must concede, speak the truth. For how can this be the end for him here? _...And you shall be free, we shall see to it, give you the power to be so, if only you strive for it; show us your strength, your will. This is your test, Edmund._ The forgotten prisoner of cell 34 feels his heart, long ignored, start at the pronunciation of his name. His name; he thought it lost, faded with the memories of his life in the light, but the voices have returned it to him, and for that he trusts them. 

After years of hanging limp and wasted in his bonds, prisoner number 34 - no, Edmund Dantes, his name is Edmund, he shall not forget again - begins to fight. the voices cheer him on: _Yes, yes!_ Words in the dark and he lifts his head and screams out the promise of life to the darkness. As power courses through him he knows at once with the certainty of a God, that no more is he the prisoner of this damp, pitch-black cave; he is its king. The Ruler of the Caverns is born.


End file.
